Kari’s Law was signed into law in 2018. It is named after Kari Hunt Dunn. The law was championed by her family after she was killed and her 9-year-old daughter was unable to reach emergency services. The child knew to call 911 but she was unaware that she had to dial “9” to reach an outside line before calling 911 at the hotel where they were staying. This is a tragic story but I am encouraged that the family has made strides in changing the telephony communications landscape.
Kari’s Law requires direct dialing of “911” be enabled in enterprise environments and directs the FCC to develop necessary 911 calling regulations for the multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) that are commonly used for communications services in buildings, like hotels, hospitals, and most office campuses.
Bringing your business into compliance with new laws and regulations can sound daunting, but having the right partner to help guide your efforts can make Kari’s Law compliance date far less intimidating.
So what does your phone system need to be capable of?
Notifications
Karis Law requires your business phone system to implement notifications to assigned members when anyone calls out using 911. Notifications will allow all employees to know there is an emergency. This is great for the emergency support staff that might be coming to the location to help.
Location
The location is now required to be on file with the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point). This is the entity that gives routing information to the emergency responders. The new objectives also aim to have room numbers, floor numbers, and other pertinent information for the PSAP.
No More “9”
The most important change seems to be the “no more 9”. Kari’s Law will require any MLTS to allow callers to reach 911 without any prefix to dial beforehand. This means that you will need to ensure your phone system has this capability to be compliant.
We are happy to help
Don’t feel like you have to figure all this out on your own. We can help you figure out if your current system is capable of this OR if you need a new system that can handle all of this. We have already checked our own phone system to ensure this will not be an issue. Compliance is one thing. But the safety of others is paramount to us.